Abstract
People are more likely to perform poorly on a self-control task following a previous task requiring self-control (ego-depletion), but the mechanism for this effect remains unclear. We used pupillometry to test the role of attentional effort in ego-depletion. We hypothesized that an elevated pupil diameter (PD)—a common physiological measure of effort—during an initial task requiring self-control should be negatively associated with performance on a subsequent control task. To test this hypothesis, participants were first assigned to either a high- or low-demand attention task (manipulation; a standard ego-depletion paradigm), after which all participants completed the same Stroop task. We then separately extracted both sustained (low-frequency) and phasic (high-frequency) changes in PD from both tasks to evaluate possible associations with lapses of cognitive control on the Stroop task. We first show that in the initial task, sustained PD was larger among participants who were assigned to the demanding attention condition. Furthermore, ego-depletion effects were serially mediated by PD: an elevated PD response emerged rapidly among the experimental group during the manipulation, persisted as an elevated baseline response during the Stroop task, and predicted worse accuracy on incongruent trials, revealing a potential indirect pathway to ego-depletion via sustained attention. Secondary analyses revealed another, independent and direct pathway via high levels of transient attentional control: participants who exhibited large phasic responses during the manipulation tended to perform worse on the subsequent Stroop task. We conclude by exploring the neuroscientific implications of these results within the context of current theories of self-control.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
Data, experimental code, and analysis code used to complete the study will be available upon publication at the Open Science Framework: www.osf.io/m6kax
References
Alnæs D, Sneve MH, Espeseth T, Endestad T, van de Pavert SH, Laeng B (2014) Pupil size signals mental effort deployed during multiple object tracking and predicts brain activity in the dorsal attention network and the locus coeruleus. J vis 14:1–20
Arnsten AF (2000) Stress impairs prefrontal cortical function in rats and monkeys: role of dopamine D1 and norepinephrine alpha-1 receptor mechanisms. Prog Brain Res 126:183–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6123(00)26014-7
Arnsten AF (2009) Stress signalling pathways that impair prefrontal cortex structure and function. Nat Rev Neurosci 10:410–422
Aston-Jones G, Cohen JD (2005) An integrative theory of locus coeruleus-norepinephrine function: adaptive gain and optimal performance. Annu Rev Neurosci 28:403–450. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.neuro.28.061604.135709
Aston-Jones G, Rajkowski J, Kubiak P, Alexinsky T (1994) Locus coeruleus neurons in monkey are selectively activated by attended cues in a vigilance task. J Neurosci 14:4467–4480
Baumeister RF, Bratslavsky E, Muraven M, Tice DM (1998) Ego-depletion: is the active self a limited resource? J Pers Soc Psychol 74:1252–1265. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.5.1252
Beedie CJ, Lane AM (2012) The role of glucose in self-control: another look at the evidence and an alternative conceptualization. Pers Soc Psychol Rev 16:143–153
Brisson J, Mainville M, Mailloux D, Beaulieu C, Serres J, Sirois S (2013) Pupil diameter measurement errors as a function of gaze direction in corneal reflection eyetrackers. Behav Res Methods 45:1322–1331. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-013-0327-0
Carter EC, Kofler LM, Forster DE, McCollough ME (2015) A series of meta-analytic tests of the depletion effect: self-control does not seem to rely on a limited resource. J Exp Psychol Gen 144:796–815
Costa VD, Rudebeck PH (2016) More than meets the eye: the relationship between pupil size and locus coeruleus activity. Neuron 89:1–10
da Silva Castanheria K, LoParco M, Otto RA (2020) Task-evoked pupillary responses track effort exertion: evidence from task-switching. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-020-00843-z
Dang, J. (2016a) Commentary: a multilab preregistered replication of the ego-depletion effect. Front Psychol 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01155
Dang J (2016b) Testing the role of glucose in self-control: a meta-analysis. Appetite 107:222–230. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.07.021
Dang J, Barker P, Baumert A et al (2021) A multilab replication of the ego depletion effect. Soc Psychol Personal Serv 12:14–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550619887702
De Gee J, Tsetsos K, Schwabe L, Urai AE, McCormick D, McGinley MJ, Donner TH (2020) Pupil-linked phasic arousal predicts a reduction of choice bias across species and decision domains. eLife 9:e54014. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.54014
Einhäuser W, Stout J, Koch C, Carter O (2008) Pupil dilation reflects perceptual selection and predicts subsequent stability in perceptual rivalry. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 105:1704–1709
Eldar E, Cohen JD, Niv Y (2013) The effects of neural gain on attention and learning. Nat Neurosci 16:1146–1153. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3428
Eldar E, Niv Y, Cohen J (2016) Do you see the forest or the tree? Neural gain and breadth versus focus in perceptual processing. Psychol Sci 27:1632–1643
Evans DR, Boggero IA, Segerstrom SC (2016) The Nature of self-regulatory fatigue and “ego-depletion”: lessons from physical fatigue. Pers Soc Psychol Rev 20:291–310. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868315597841
Finley AJ, Tang D, Schmeichel B (2019) Sweet nothings: no effect of self-control exertion on blood glucose levels. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000376
Friese M, Loschelder DD, Gieseler K, Frankenbach J, Inzlicht M (2019) Is ego-depletion real? An analysis of arguments. Pers Soc Psychol Rev 23:107–131
Fujita K (2011) On conceptualizing self-control as more than the effortful inhibition of impulses. Pers Soc Psychol Rev 15:352–366. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868311411165
Gabay S, Pertzov Y, Henik A (2013) Orienting of attention, pupil size, and the norepinephrine system. Atten Percept Psychophys 73:123–129
Gailliot MT, Baumeister RF, DeWall CN, Maner JK, Plant EA, Tice DM, Brewer LE, Schmeichel BJ (2007) Self-control relies on glucose as a limited energy source: willpower is more than a metaphor. J Pers Soc Psychol 92:325–336. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.2.325
Garrison KE, Finley AJ, Schmeichel BJ (2019) Ego depletion reduces attention control: evidence from two high-powered preregistered experiments. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 45(5):728–739. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167218796473
Geva R, Zivan M, Warsha A, Olchik D (2013) Alerting, orienting or executive attention networks: differential patters of pupil dilations. Front Behav Neurosci 7:145. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2013.00145
Gilzenrat MS, Nieuwenhuis S, Jepma M, Cohen JD (2010) Pupil diameter tracks changes in control state predicted by the adaptive gain theory of locus coeruleus function. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci 10:252–269. https://doi.org/10.3758/CABN.10.2.252
Hagger MS, Wood C, Stiff C, Chatzisarantis NLD (2010) Ego-depletion and the strength model of self-control: a meta-analysis. Psychol Bull 136:495–525. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019486
Hagger MS, Chatzisarantis NLD, Alberts H, Anggono CO, Batailler C, Birt AR, Brand R, Brandt MJ, Brewer G, Bruyneel S, Calvillo DP, Zwienenberg M (2016) A multilab preregistered replication of the ego-depletion effect. Perspect Psychol Sci 11:546–573. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691616652873
Hauser TU, Eldar E, Purg N, Moutoussis M, Dolan RJ (2019) Distinct roles of dopamine and noradrenaline in incidental memory. J Neurosci 39:7715–7721
Hayes AF (2013) Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: a regression-based approach. The Guilford Press, New York
Hoffman JE, Subramaniam B (1995) The role of visual attention in saccadic eye movements. Percept Psychophys 57(6):787–795
Hopstaken JF, van der Linden D, Bakker AB, Kompier MA (2015) A multifaceted Investigation of the link between mental fatigue and task disengagement. Psychophysiology 52:305–315
Inzlicht M, Gutsell JN (2007) Running on empty: neural signals for self-control failure. Psychol Sci 18:933–937. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.02004.x
Inzlicht M, Schmeichel BJ (2012) What is ego-depletion? Toward a mechanistic revision of the resource model of self-control. Perspect Psychol Sci 7:450–463. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612454134
Inzlicht M, Schmeichel BJ, Macrae CN (2014) Why self-control seems (but may not be) limited. Trends Cogn Sci 18:127–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.12.009
Ishihara S (1917) Tests for color blindness. Hongo Harukicho, Handaya, Tokyo
Jepma M, Nieuwenhuis S (2011) Pupil diameter predicts changes in the exploration-exploitation trade-off: evidence for the adaptive gain theory. J Cogn Neurosci 23:1587–1596
Job V, Dweck C, Walton G (2010) Ego-depletion: is it all in your head? Implicit theories about willpower affect self-regulation. Psychol Sci 21:1686–1693
Joshi S, Li Y, Kalwani RM, Gold JI (2016) Relationships between pupil diameter and neuronal activity in the locus coeruleus, colliculi, and cingulate cortex. Neuron 89:221–234
Kleiner M, Brainard D, Pelli D, Ingling A, Murray R, Broussard C (2007) What’s new in Psychtoolbox-3. Percept 36:1–16
Knapen T, de Gee JW, Brascamp J, Nuiten S, Hoppenbrouwers S, Theeuwes J (2016) Cognitive and ocular factors jointly determine pupil responses under equiluminance. PLoS ONE 11(5):e0155574. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0155574
Kurzban R (2010) Does the brain consume additional glucose during self-control tasks? Evol Psychol 8:244–259
Kurzban R, Duckworth A, Kable JW, Myers J (2013) An opportunity cost model of subjective effort and task performance. Behav Brain Sci 36:661–679. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X12003196
Laeng B, Ørbo M, Holmlund T, Miozzo M (2011) Pupillary stroop effects. Cogn Process 12:13–21
Lin H, Saunders B, Friese M, Evans NJ, Inzlicht M (2020) Strong effort manipulations reduce response caution: a preregistered reinvention of the ego-depletion paradigm. Psychol Sci 31(5):531–547. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620904990
Martin JT, Whittaker AH, Johnston SJ (2022) Pupillometry and the vigilance decrement: task-evoked but not baseline pupil measures reflect declining performance in visual vigilance tasks. Eur J Neurosci 55:778–799. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.15585
Mathôt S, Vilotijević A (2022) Methods in cognitive pupillometry: design, preprocessing, and statistical analysis. Behav Res 55:3055–3077. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-022-01957-7
Mathôt S, Fabius J, Van Heusden E, Van der Stigchel S (2018) Safe and sensible preprocessing and baseline correction of pupil-size data. Behav Res Methods 50:94–106
Mischel W, Shoda Y, Rodriguez ML (1989) Delay of Gratification in Children. Sci 244(4907):933–938. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.2658056
Mittner M, Hawkins GE, Boekel W, Forstmann BU (2016) A neural model of mind wandering. Trends Cogn Sci 20:570–578
Muraven M, Tice DM, Baumeister RF (1998) Self-control as a limited resource: regulatory depletion patterns. J Pers Soc Psychol 74:774–789
O’Bryan SR, Scolari M (2021) Phasic pupillary responses modulate object-based attentional prioritization. Atten Percept Psychophys 83:1491–1507
Price MM, Brewer LE (2015) Social media use and self-control. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the society of personality and social psychology, Long Beach, CA, February
Rajkowski J, Kubiak P, Aston-Jones G (1994) Locus coeruleus activity in monkey: phasic and tonic changes are associated with altered vigilance. Brain Res Bull 35:607–616
Reimer J, McGinley MJ, Liu Y, Rodenkirch C, Wang Q, McCormick DA, Tolias AS (2016) Pupil fluctuations track rapid changes in adrenergic and cholinergic activity in cortex. Nat Commun 7:13289
Rondeel EWM, van Steenbergen H, Holland RW, van Knippenberg A (2015) A closer look at cognitive control: differences in resource allocation during updating, inhibition and switching as revealed by pupillometry. Front Hum Neurosci 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00494
Rucker DD, Preacher KJ, Tormala ZL, Petty RE (2011) Mediation analysis in social psychology: current practices and new recommendations. Soc Pers Psychol Compass 5(6):359–371
Sara SJ, Bouret S (2012) Orienting and Reorienting: the locus coeruleus mediates cognition through arousal. Neuron 76:130–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2012.09.011
Seifi Ala T, Graversen C, Wendt D, Alickovic E, Whitmer WM, Lunner T (2020) An exploratory study of EEG alpha oscillation and pupil dilation in hearing-aid users during effortful listening to continuous speech. PLoS ONE 15(7):e0235782. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0235782
Schmeichel BJ, Vohs KD, Baumeister RF (2003) Intellectual performance and ego-depletion: role of the self in logical reasoning and other information processing. J Pers Soc Psychol 85:33–46. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.1.33
Schmeichel BJ, Harmon-Jones C, Harmon-Jones E (2010) Exercising self-control increases approach motivation. J Pers Soc Psychol 99:162–173
Smallwood J, Brown KS, Baird B, Mrazek MD, Franklin MS, Schooler JW (2012) Insulation for daydreams: a role for tonic norepinephrine in the facilitation of internally guided thought. PLoS ONE 7:e33706
Stroop JR (1935) Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. J Exp Psychol 18:643–662. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054651
Unsworth N, Robison MK (2016) Pupillary correlates of lapses of sustained attention. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci 16:601–615. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-016-0417-4
Unsworth N, Miller AL, Robison MK (2020) Individual differences in lapses of sustained attention: ocolumetric indicators of intrinsic alertness. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 46:569–592
Van der Brink RL, Murphy PR, Nieuwenhuis S (2016) Pupil diameter tracks lapses of attention. PLoS ONE 11:e0165274
van der Wel P, van Steenbergen H (2018) Pupil dilation as an index of effort in cognitive control tasks: a review. Psychon Bull Rev 25:2005–2015
Varazzani C, San-Galli A, Gilardeau S, Bouret S (2015) Noradrenaline and dopamine neurons in the reward/effort trade-off: a direct electrophysiological comparison in behaving monkeys. J Neurosci 35:7866–7877
Vohs KD, Schmeichel BJ, Lohmann S et al (2021) A multisite preregistered paradigmatic test of the ego-depletion effect. Psychol Sci 32(10):1566–1581. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797621989733
Wagner DD, Heatherton DF (2013) Self-regulatory depletion increases emotional reactivity in the amygdala. Soc Cognit Affect Neurosci 8:410–417
Webb TL, Sheeran P (2003) Can implementation intentions help to overcome ego-depletion? J Exp Soc Psychol 39(3):279–286. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-1031(02)00527-9
Wendt D, Koelewijn T, Ksiek P, Kramer SE, Lunner T (2018) Toward a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of masker type and signal-to-noise ratio on the pupillary response while performing a speech-in-noise test. Hear Res 369:67–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heares.2018.05.006
Yokoi A, Weiler J (2022) Pupil diameter tracked during motor adaptation in humans. J Neurophysiol 128:1224–1243. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00021.2022
Zhao S, Chait M, Dick F, Dayan P, Furukawa S, Liao H (2019) Pupil-linked phasic arousal evoked by violation but not emergence of regularity within rapid sound sequences. Nat Commun 10(1):4030. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12048-1
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states there is no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Communicated by Bill J Yates.
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
O’Bryan, S.R., Price, M.M., Alquist, J.L. et al. Changes in pupil size track self-control failure. Exp Brain Res 242, 829–841 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-024-06781-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-024-06781-3